


The Meaning of Home

by Peach_Bitters (peachybitters)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alcohol, Coruscant Underworld (Star Wars), Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Jedi, Jedi Relationships, Jedi family, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Mentioned Obi-Wan Kenobi, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28345785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachybitters/pseuds/Peach_Bitters
Summary: On assignment in Couscant’s lower levels, Rael Averross finds himself having a drink with another Jedi misfit.
Relationships: Rael Averross and Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	The Meaning of Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StarWarsFics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarWarsFics/gifts).



They said that every Jedi’s personal relationship with the Force was a little bit different; they said it never spoke to two Jedi in exactly the same way, and the way it spoke to you would change and grow over the years. Rael understood. To him, the Force had come to sound something like a nagging spouse - shrill and demanding. It also knew better than he did, and he listened to it. Which was probably why he was still alive and _mostly_ intact, after everything.

The Force was nudging at him now, _poking_ , very inconveniently because all he wanted was to finish his drink and head back to the Temple. No, not the Temple. Not tonight. The Temple was for sages and wide eyed kids who thought every Knight was a hero, that the Force had grand plans for them, that the Galaxy could be fixed. It was good that they thought that, of course. He’d never met anyone that could stomach a young cynic. But Rael was equally disturbed that anyone, young or old, could take a look at him and think role model just because somehow he still bore the title of Jedi Knight.

He’d see if Dala wanted him over tonight. If she still lived in this neighborhood, anyway. He hadn’t been on Coruscant in five or six years, and knew things here changed quickly.

All right, all right, he thought, because the Force wouldn’t stop poking.

There was a tall kid sitting alone in the corner, seventeen or eighteen, dressed in not quite fashionable street clothes but to Rael’s honed perception shining like a beacon. Unmistakably Jedi. He was wearing a hat too, no doubt to hide his tell tale braid just in case someone might recognize the symbol. It was true, you never knew. Something familiar about him, too. He watched him for a moment, discreetly. The boy looked nervous, but only a little. Not the nervousness of someone in danger, but more like he was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be. Rael quickly scanned the room, looking for signs of any other Force users. He was pretty good about picking them out. But it was evident he and the boy were the only Jedi in the bar. Rael grabbed his glass and sauntered over, sitting down across from the kid without an invitation.

“Up past your bedtime, aren’t you, Padawan?”

The kid looked startled, but the look of surprise was quickly replaced by one of irritation. “Keep it down will you? I’m on an assignment. Undercover.”

Rael smirked, then threw back the rest of his drink. “Oh yeah? What kind of assignment?”

The kid’s eyes got shifty then. The jig was up. But he leaned forward and lowered his voice as he spoke. “Umm, well I got a lead. Heard Zargis Brill’s guys were going to be in here tonight.”

“Yeah,” Rael said. “I heard. Except I actually got that assignment, you know, assigned to me. And last I heard I was the only one on this job.”

The kid blushed a little at that. “Oh. I didn’t know they got a Jedi on that. So I thought-”

Rael gave a short laugh. “Keep it down, will you?”

The kid was right. Well, partially. This was supposed to be an intel-gathering assignment connected with a large scale, complicated trafficking operation that the Coruscant law enforcement agencies just couldn’t seem to get a handle on. How the kid had found out about it, he didn’t know, but didn’t particularly care. Jedi kids were known to be nosy little sneaks who couldn't mind their own business to save their lives. The more classified the information, the quicker they found out. Of course, actually try and sit them down and tell them something they were supposed to understand (like how to mind their own business), and it was in one ear, out the other. But, that’s just how it was. No use trying to change it.

He gestured toward the kid’s drink. “What is that? Juice?”

“Yeah.”

Rael shook his head in disapproval. “You think you’re gonna fit in here orderin’ juice? You’re of age, aren’t ya? Not that they care much in a place like this.”

The kid looked embarrassed. “Yeah. I just thought...well, I’m not used to drinking.”

The name came to Rael suddenly, as things sometimes did, when the Force was in a giving mood.

“You want these types of jobs, Anakin, you’d better get used to it.”

Anakin Skywalker blinked at him. “Have we met..uh, Master?”

Rael waved an irritated hand at him. “Rael. Just Rael. I ain’t no one’s Master, kid.” _Not in a long time._

The boy’s eyes grew wide. “Rael Aveross! Oh, I remember now.”

Yeah, they’d met once, years ago, when the kid was tiny. Kenobi had brought him back from Naboo. No, he’d come from somewhere else before that, some dustball in the Outer Rim. The kid was way too old to be trained, but the Council in their wisdom had made an exception. All Rael knew was that his raw power was apparently impressive enough to make them do away with ages-old rules. Whatever was special about him, it must have been very special indeed.

“You mind if I stay?” Anakin asked, turning his cup around in his hands. Fidgety little fella.

Rael scanned the room for the server and waved her over. “Only if you have a drink with me. I mean a real drink.”

“Oh...all right,” Anakin said with a sheepish smile. “But I guess I don’t know what to order.”

Kenobi must keep him pretty sheltered in that Temple, Rael thought. Not that being sheltered in the Temple kept kids from experimentation. Rael still remembered his first drink fairly well. Dooku had been a collector of fine and rare things from across the Galaxy, and as a curious young fourteen-year-old, Rael had sampled some of his master’s one hundred year old Sullustian rum. The stuff had been more potent than he’d bargained for, resulting in him being sick into his master’s lovely three hundred year old Sullustian vase. Rael had frantically cleaned it out before his master had gotten home, and Dooku never said anything, but he knew. Without a shadow of a doubt, he knew. Nothing ever escaped that man’s notice.

Rael did miss that bastard sometimes, in spite of everything.

He ordered them a couple drinks - more hull stripper for himself, and for Anakin, who he guessed had a sweet tooth, a Coruscant Cooler. Even in a place like this, they tended to be heavy on the juice. A crowd pleaser and not a bad first drink for a kid. As for Rael, he’d built up such a tolerance for booze over the years in seedy joints like this one he could almost match the legendary Quinlan Vos if it came down to it. Almost. He wouldn’t have been surprised if, as a baby, Quin had been delivered to the Temple swigging on a bottle of Corellian brandy.

He smirked as he watched Anakin scan the bar, trying not to look too eager. He wouldn't tell the boy what he knew - that according to his informant the guys working for Zargis Brill had pulled out at the last minute and weren’t going to show up. So tonight was a bust, at least in that regard.

The drinks came quick. The bored looking server wordlessly set down the bottle of Rael’s hull stripper along with two fresh small cups, and a pale pink drink for the Padawan. Anakin picked up the glass in front of him and studied it as if wary. “This won’t...dull my senses will it?”

Rael hid another smirk behind the lip of his hull stripper cup. “You’ll be okay, kid. People like us ‘ve got high tolerances. Midichlorians ‘ll soak the alcohol right up.”

Anakin frowned at him, unable to tell if he was joking or not. But he took a hesitant sip of his cheerful looking beverage and nodded in approval. “That’s good. It just tastes like juice.”

“Careful. They say those sneak up on you.”

“So the midichlorians don’t soak it up?” Anakin said accusingly.

Rael leaned back in his chair. “Reckon we’ll see, huh?”

Anakin took a larger sip. Then, with another thoughtful look at it, he tipped it back and drained the glass.

Rael snorted. “Oh, kid…”

“I don’t feel anything,” said Anakin defiantly, as if Rael had cheated him. But there was a note of pride in his voice as well.

“Give it a few minutes before you get another ‘un, at least,” Rael said, rubbing his chin. “So, how’s that master of yours? Still the Council’s darlin’?”

Anakin shrugged, not attempting to hide his bitter pout. “He’s on an offworld assignment. Without me.”

Rael shook his head in sympathy. “Ah. So goes th’ life of a Padawan.”

Anakin let out an exhale as if deflating. “Yeah. But I think I’m good enough that I could’ve gone with him. I’m good enough for a solo mission, even. But he doesn’t listen.”

Rael picked up the hull stripper bottle and filled each of the cups and filled to the brim with the clear, potent liquid. Just full enough that they wouldn’t spill over. He pushed the furthest one toward the apprentice.

“You guys close?”

Anakin looked taken aback at that question, either because he found it profoundly stupid, or because no one had ever asked him. Rael supposed it could’ve been both.

“You fight a lot?”

Anakin grinned again, embarrassed, looking at his cup as if wondering what to do with it. “I mean, we argue, yeah.”

“Yeah, you guys ‘re close,” Rael said decidedly. “I can tell.” He picked up his cup. “To new experiences.”

Anakin touched his cup to his, then sipped at it gingerly before making a face. “That’s awful.”

“Believe me, this is the good stuff,” Rael snorted. Anakin winced and laughed, but gamely took another sip. Then several more.

They chatted for a while. Anakin’s mood brightened and Rael listened as he chattered on about his classes and about his latest missions. And Obi-Wan. Yeah, the kid loved him like crazy, that was clear enough. And Rael would bet anything Kenobi was crazy about him too.

Nim’s face popped up in his mind’s eye a couple times as they talked. He didn’t like it, but he didn’t fight it, either. Maybe he wasn’t a great Jedi, but he was still a Jedi. And he knew there were things you couldn’t fight; some things you just carried forever.

She’d been young when he’d lost her. Too young for this sort of thing. Would have been nice if she’d grown up enough to have a drink with her, and just chat. To be friends.

_Sorry, Nim._

The effects of the hull stripper finally seemed to be having their effects on Anakin, judging by his drooping eyelids, his slightly louder speech. Rael decided to bring his education in alcohol to end for the evening.

“Well, kid, it’s been a pleasure. But I think it’s time for you to get back to the Temple.”

“But what about Zargis Brill!” Anakin cried, perking suddenly.

Rael put his finger over his lips. “Shh! Keep it down.”

“Oh, yeah,” Anakin whispered loudly. “Sorry.”

Rael stood and threw a few coins on the table, then extended his hand to the boy. “Let’s go outside.”

“I got a tip they weren’t goin’ to be here tonight,” he said, clapping Anakin on the back after the tavern door had closed behind them. “But thanks for the company anyway.”

Anakin blinked in the streetlights, looking confused but unphased. “Oh.”

“Can I take you back home?” He wanted to make sure the boy got back safely. After some of the stories Anakin had told him, he seemed the type to get himself in trouble with an unfortunate detour or two - even when sober. Rael wasn’t sure what he’d get up to after a couple drinks. With Obi-Wan gone he probably needed some watching over.

Anakin’s eyes dropped then, and something like a melancholy mood seemed to overtake him. The double edged sword of drinking. “Yeah. But the Temple’s not _really_ my home.”

Rael smiled sadly, guiding him toward a parked air taxi on the far side of the street. Anakin was a smart kid. Understood that home was about people, not places. Connections. He’d joined the Jedi late enough to still remember his first home; maybe still had family there. Rael knew they must share the same deep ache for what they couldn’t have. The people who’d meant home to them both were long gone, never coming back.

“I get it, kid. I get it,” he sighed. “It’s not really mine, either.”

They got into the cab and Anakin sat back, staring ahead. Troubled again.

“You know,” Rael said, the words catching in his throat. When was the last time he’d offered comfort to anyone? “Maybe the Temple’s not home exactly, but...the Jedi ‘re still your family. You understand that, dontcha?”

Anakin looked at him with bleary eyes, yet somehow Rael felt keenly pierced by them. He was about to pull away, but Anakin broke the gaze first. “You’re a good person,” he said, almost to himself.

Rael flashed him a crooked smile. “News to me.”

The taxi rose up out of the lower levels and Rael turned his head to stare out across the Coruscant skyline, taking a few deep breaths to banish the tears that were threatening to fall.

**Author's Note:**

> I hang out on tumblr a lot, come say hi! [my tumblr](https://peachybitters.tumblr.com)


End file.
